My friend invited me to his place and I saw in it graven images of different sizes and makes. When reminded that God detested them, my friend said, “God is not against these. God is against people worshiping these.”
An hour later his churchmate arrived, went straight to a graven image, knelt before it and prayed.
Did you know that Eastern Orthodoxy and some Protestant churches keep graven images in their churches?
The fact is, God forbids graven images of any make (Exodus 20:4-6).
§ Idols made of stone or cement are forbidden.
7 Do not make cast idols. EXODUS 34
1 Do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourselves, and do not place a carved stone in your land to bow down before it. I am the Lord your God. LEVITICUS 26
§ Idols made of wood are forbidden.
21 Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole beside the altar you build to the Lord your God, 22 and do not erect a sacred stone, for these the Lord your God hates. DEUTERONOMY 16
§ Idols made of metals are forbidden.
23 Do not make any gods to be alongside Me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold. EXODUS 20
Catholicism says its graven image is that of God Incarnate. If that were so, from which historical record did it base the appearance of its graven image? For no reliable evidence or portrait is known to man that can accurately depict how Y’shua looked like.
Legend says the face Y’shua in the Last Supper painting of Leonardo Da Vinci was modeled after the face of a convicted criminal.
If the graven image is not an accurate depiction of Y’shua, then the claim it is that of God Incarnate is a lie. Habakkuk 2:18 asks, “Of what value is an image that teaches lies?”
Assuming for the sake of argument that the graven image were that of Y’shua, the next question is, what about the other graven images in the church? What is the justification for them?
The church has been making graven images, putting them in pedestals, and encouraging its members to kneel and bow down before them. In 787 ad it imposed the veneration of idols, in 375 ad the veneration of saints and angels, and in 431 ad the veneration of the Virgin Mary. In venerating the Virgin Mary, everyone is encouraged to pray the rosary (a disproportionate 53 prayers to “Holy Mary” and 6 to “our Father in heaven”); also, to pray the novena (a litany of petitions to the Blessed Mother and the saints).
Venerating the Blessed Mother, the saints and the angels, and encouraging people to pray to them, are a direct contravention of God’s instruction, to wit:
10 Worship only God! REVELATION 19 nlt
Matthew 6:9 instructs us to pray to our Father in Heaven. Pray to the Creator, not to a creation—this is the instruction. Y’shua would never have instructed anyone to pray to the Blessed Mother or the saints for obviously none of them made “the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.”
7 Worship Him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water. REVELATION 14
The next question is, to whom are idol-hosting churches leading their churchgoers: God or Lucifer? Idol-hosting is spiritual adultery. Y’shua said, “Will you speak to King Herod with your back facing him? Certainly not! Yet men do pray to their Father in heaven while facing Lucifer.” (Gospel of Barnabas)
9 [Isra’el] committed adultery by worshiping stones and trees. JEREMIAH 3
30 The people of Judah have committed an evil thing. They have placed their idols, which I hate, in My temple and have defiled it… 19 Am I really the one they are hurting? No, they are hurting themselves and bringing shame on themselves. JEREMIAH 7
Death to Idolaters?
How should a loving husband feel when he sees someone ravishing his wife? Or when he sees his wife enjoying sex with his enemy? We ask because in the Philippines unscrupulous Christians build altars to Lucifer and sacrifice blood. They offer food, drink and tobacco to the dead and anitos (folk gods), and violate Exodus 23:13. In the Cordillera, Catholic priests could be seen officiating at caniao rituals (inculturization, they say).
20 The sacrifices of pagans that are offered to idols are offered to demons, not God; and I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons… 23 Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? 1 CORINTHIANS 10
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? PSALM 50
22 To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. 1 SAMUEL 15
Some churches teach that idolaters must be put to death. That is Old Testament practice; don’t do it.
2 If a man or woman living among you. 3 …has worshipped other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or the moon or the stars of the sky 4 …and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done in Isra’el, 5 take the man or woman who has done this evil deed to your city gate and stone that person to death. DEUTERONOMY 17
20 Whoever sacrifices to any god other than the Lord must be destroyed… 18 Do not allow a sorceress to live. EXODUS 22
27 A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death. You are to stone them; their blood will be on their own heads. LEVITICUS 20
5 Put to death any interpreters of dreams or prophets that tell you to rebel against the Lord… Such people are evil and are trying to lead you away from the life that the Lord has commanded you to live. They must be put to death in order to rid yourselves of this evil. 6 Even if your brother or your son or your daughter or the wife you love or your closest friend may secretly encourage you to worship other gods… 8 Do not let any of them persuade you; do not even listen to them. Show them no pity, and do not protect them. 9 Kill them! DEUTERONOMY 13
The New Covenant has deferred the practice of stoning idolaters to death.
7 If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at the adulterous woman. JOHN 8
“Adulterous woman” is a reference to spouse-stealers; also, a veiled reference to spiritual adulterers, which include the idolaters. John 8:7 is saying inasmuch as all of us are sin-bearers (Ecclesiastes 7:20), no one among us is qualified to throw the first stone. Only the Son of Man is.
15 He had the same testings we do, yet He did not sin. HEBREWS 4 nlt
Fortunately for us, Y’shua has chosen to sit on His throne of grace, not on His throne of judgment. Y’shua is LOVE. He is not in a hurry to put anyone to death. He wants all sin-bearers to be restored, not condemned.
9 He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 PETER 3
God’s instruction is to do away with idolatry—the practice, not the idolater.
6 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Repent! Turn from your idols and renounce all your detestable practices! EZEKIEL 14
3 If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the Lord and serve Him only, and He will deliver you out of the Philistinians. 1 SAMUEL 7
30 I will judge you, each one according to his ways… Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. 31 Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. 32 For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live! EZEKIEL 18
18 Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods… Make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison. DEUTERONOMY 2
What if the idolater does not heed God’s call?
Still, you may destroy his altar and church house (Numbers 33:52, Exodus 23:24, Deuteronomy 7:25-26 and 12:2-3) but do not touch his person. It is not for us to pass judgment on him. Honor God’s decision to give him time to be enlightened and to mend his ways.
At the Day of Judgment, the dead that does not mend his ways will be sent to his Second Death (Revelation 21:8) in accordance with his own choosing.
10 Those who hate the Lord your God He will repay to their face by destruction. The Lord your God will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate Him. DEUTERONOMY 7
16 They made God jealous with their foreign gods and angered Him with their detestable idols. 17 They sacrificed to demons, which are not God—gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, and gods your fathers [ancestors] did not fear. 18 You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth… 22 A fire has been kindled by My wrath; one that burns to the realm of death below. It will devour the earth and its harvests and set afire the foundations of the mountains. DEUTERONOMY 32
4 I will stretch out My hand against Judah and against all who live in Jerusalem. I will cut off from this place every remnant of Ba’al [the god of Sidon], the names of the pagan and the idolatrous priests— 5 those who bow down on the roofs to worship the starry host, those who bow down and swear by the Lord and who also swear by Molech [the god of Ammonites that required child sacrifices], 6 those who turn back from following the Lord and neither seek the Lord nor inquire of Him. ZEPHANIAH 1
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